Birthday Shower Recipes, Volume II: White Russian Cupcakes and Sherbet Punch

First of all, how the hell is the word 'sherbet' pronounced... 'sure-burt'? 'sure-bet'? 'sure-bay'?

Let's just pronouce it 'delicious' and get to the recipes.

You guys, my birthday shower/small-scale P.Diddy white party went off without a hitch.

I didn't wear white because I discovered that the only garment I own that is white is my high school graduation gown.  Why do I still possess my high school graduation gown, you ask? Because I'm planning on being a hoarder when I grow up.

But beyond that, I thought the decorations looked pretty cute.  And the food was mighty tasty.

I made pineapple sherbet punch based off of this recipe from All Recipes... except that I used gingerale instead of Sprite or 7-up because I like it better.

I forgot to take any photos of the punch... probably because I was too busy pouring punch glass after punch glass of it down my throat.

But I did remember to take a photo of the White Russian cupcakes before I started applying them to my face.


I used my favorite recipe for White Wedding Cake cupcakes and adapted it by substituting Kahlua for the typical white wedding cake flavorings (some use just vanilla, some use almond extract... I prefer to use 2 products called 'creme bouquet' and 'almond emulsion', both of which are available at cake decorating/baking supply stores).

The frosting for these cupcakes turned into a trial... a very unnecessary one. I'm going to give you the recipe for my my favorite buttercream recipe.  I tried to use a cream cheese icing recipe from Pinterest that was supposed to be fabulous. It wasn't, and I had to add insane amounts of powdered sugar to make it firm enough to use on the cupcakes. They taste great, but I also probably have 5  new cavities from eating them. My usual buttercream recipe from The Kitchen Magpie has never ever failed me so I think you should use it.

The result was a subtly Kahlua-flavored cake and frosting.  I suppose it would have been more in keeping with the cocktail to add vodka to the mix, but in all honesty when I drink white russians I'm basically just drinking Kahlua-flavored milk and I don't really care about the vodka. And it was my birthday. So there.

White Russian Cupcakes

Cake (yields approximately 36 cupcakes):

1 (18.25 oz) box of white cake mix
1 c. all-purpose flour
1 c. granulated sugar
3/4 tsp. salt
1 1/3 c. water
2 T. canola oil
1 T. Kahlua
1 c. sour cream
4 egg whites

Preheat oven to 325°.  Go ahead an put your cupcake liners into your muffin tins.

Whisk together your dry ingredients. Add everything else and beat with a hand mixer until smooth and well blended.

Use a standard size ice-cream scoop to scoop batter into lined muffin tins.  They should be around 3/4 full. Bake 18 to 20 minutes until toothpick inserted into middle of cupcake comes back out with a few crumbs clinging to it.

Cool on wire rack.

I found the recipe for this icing (minus the Kahlua) a couple of months ago on Pinterest and it has since become my all time favorite.

Icing:

1 c. salted butter, softened
3 tsp. Kahlua
4 c. powdered sugar
4 to 5 T. of heavy whipping cream.

Whip the butter (preferably with the paddle attachment of your mixer) for a couple of minutes... until it's nice and fluffy (sort of like firm mayonnaise... side note: Firm Mayonnaise would be a great name for a punk band).

Add the powdered sugar and beat it some more... another minute or so.  Now add your heavy cream.  I would probably use 4 for this recipe... 5 will make the icing whippier. Also add your Kahlua.

Now whip the hell out of it until it looks whippy and heavenly.

I just filled a ziploc and cut the corner off to decorate my cupcakes... mostly because this is the extent of my decorating abilities.  Well that and sticking a cute color-coordinated sixlet on top of the frosting.  I'm really good at that too.

And thus concludes my series of birthday recipes.

By the way, guys, 30 feels great!